Tom returned alone to the rundown orphanage and went straight back to his tiny room. Through the window, he glanced at the bald eagle circling overhead. "Apos..." His gift, his pet—just like him, a pitiful little thing with no home.
What are you still hesitating for? Pointless emotions will only become stumbling blocks. Only those who lose their way will sink into the muddy current of fate...
The familiar voice whispered in his ear. Tom's eyes lost focus for a moment. Hesitating... what was he hesitating over now? In a few years, that person would leave him completely, become the new Patriarch of the Malfoy family, and live with an elegant, beautiful wife. And in that future, there was no place for him.
Tom did not answer. Watching Apos vanish from sight, he let out a soft laugh and looked away. See? He had always been alone. He could never hold on to anything that truly mattered to him. It would always be like this—standing here by himself, exhausted, with no pillar to lean on.
That's right~ Fear brings nothing but death... Cast it aside... just as everyone cast you aside... Follow your instincts and move forward...
Everything within his sight faded like a receding tide. Tom stared expressionlessly at his hands as they gradually turned gray-white, then closed his eyes and allowed the darkness to consume him. When he opened them again, he found himself once more within that bizarre dream.
The handsome, wicked-looking young man still stood before him, crimson eyes gleaming with inexplicable excitement. Come... I will help you obtain everything you desire...
Stepping over the dark red earth, Tom walked straight past the young man. His gaze remained fixed on the hazy green light in the distance. I've always been curious... How exactly did you appear in my consciousness? If you truly are my future, then you should know very well...
Turning gracefully, Tom wore a smile that was perfectly measured—pleasant enough to inspire goodwill, yet impossible to underestimate. *I will not submit to anyone, even if that person is myself... **Shattering Bones.***
The spell pierced through the young man's body. His once-handsome face twisted into a vicious expression as he glared venomously at the composed Tom. You... weakling who cannot distinguish reality... I will keep watching you until the day you are completely destroyed... My Lord...
Tom snorted disdainfully and watched coldly as the black mist gradually dispersed. Anything he could not control—even if it was his own future—he would crush without hesitation. Only he could decide the path he was meant to walk, even if that path had been sealed off.
"What I saved... was only myself."
Back in reality, Tom stroked the shaft of his wand. Before leaving school, he had discovered that Hogwarts contained Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. Once he returned to school, he would find a way to locate that hidden chamber, along with the wand said to have been crafted by Salazar Slytherin himself.
Tom came to the courtyard at night and stood where the Old Headmaster had once basked in the sun. Looking up at the pitch-black sky, he knew this had never been where he belonged. The brief happy memories had already been buried beneath unbearable ones, and the face that should have been clearly imprinted in his mind was gradually fading. "Matron, where exactly is the place I belong...?"
Wool's Orphanage was not his home, but what about Hogwarts? Could he remain forever in that place... the place that had carried so much of him... where he had first experienced unfamiliar emotions?
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